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DECISION-MAKING VISUALISATION APPUCATION BASED ON ARGUMENT-AS METAPHOR

By

Shirlene Meredith John

A project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the

Bachelor of Technology (Hons)

(Information and Communication Technology)

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Bandar Seri Iskandar 31750 Tronoh

Perak Darul Ridzuan

JANUARY 2008

CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL

Decision-MakingVisualisation Application Based on Argument-as Metaphor

by

Shirlene Meredith anak John Edan

A project dissertation submitted to the Information and Communication Technology

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY (Hons)

(INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY)

Approved by,

(Dr. Mohamed Nordin Zakaria)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS TRONOH, PERAK

January 2008

n

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that I am responsible for the work submitted in this project, that the original work is my own concept as specified in the references and acknowledgements, and that the original work contained herein have not been undertaken or done by unspecified sources or persons.

(SHIRLENE MEREDITH ANAK JOHN EDAN)

i l l

ABSTRACT

This document will examine the need of visualisation in assisting in decision making in the financial world. Observation is comprehension. This principle is central to all visualisation. Here, the necessary for visualisation is explained and the process involved

in this project. People have difficulty making optimal decisions about their financial

future, this is due to investment decisions are very difficult because they involve money

and can impact our quality of life.

This project will focus on the research paper about Argument-as Metaphor in Decision-

Making Visualisation. As an innovative alternative way in understanding the financial data, this report describes by using application developed based on the research paper

may assist decision-maker specifically, the investors, in decision-making on their

respective investment.

IV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, thanks to God for allowing me to finish this project. Without His blessings, this project should unable to reach the current progress and accomplishment.

All the devotion and effort were dedicated to my family especiallymy parents, John Edan Uban and Siah Edward Nanang for their endless supports in encouraging me in many ways to stay focus in order to reach the goal of the project and other study to complete the degree.

Thank you to cooperative lecturers of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for their support and part of main contributor in this project. To name it few here, started with Dr MohamedNordin Zakaria as the most supportive and optimistic supervisor and also Ms.

Emy Elyanee as the coordinator for Final Year Project II, Dr. P.D Dorninic, Ms Shakirah, Mrs. Nazleeni, Mr Yew Khang Hooi, Mrs. Rohiza Ahmad, and Dr Wan Fatimah who also supports and gave resources and critics on the project.

Thank you also to classmates and friends who were willingly to lend their ear and spare of their precious time to listen on draft idea of the project. I appreciate their building critics and supports during project research and implementation. Lastly, thanks againto all the people involved in this project directly or indirectly. Thank you for all the

efforts and ideas that contributes to the completion of this report and very much

appreciated.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : Visual Representation DAVE

(Decision and ArgumentationVisualisation Explorer)

Figure 2 : Investing Confidence

Figure 3 : Investing Knowledge

Figure 4 : Financial Priorities

Figure 5 : Spiral Development Method

Figure 6 : System Workflow

v i

TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 1;

CHAPTER 2:

CHAPTER 3:

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background 1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objectives and Scope of Study

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Research Paper

2.2 Investor's Investment

2.3 Factors Affects Investment Decision Making

2.4 Tools and Equipments Required

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Methodology 3.2 System Workflow

v n

i

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

5 9 10 14

17 19

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results . . . 2 1

4.2 Discussion . . . 2 3

4.3 Code Sample . . . 2 4

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion . . . , . 2 8

5.2 Recommendation . . . . 2 9

REFERENCES 30

v i n

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

LI Background of Study

When the word 'Investment' is mentioned, the first understanding that pops into any sane mind is, 'We invest to make money!' It is common knowledge too that by investing, it is an act of money making money. Investing has two ending, it's either the investors makes more money or loses more money; the higher the investment, the higher the risk and vice versa. These are the kind of risk that any investors should bear in their

mind.

Investors are being deluged with information, and they must learn how to sift through and evaluate this information overload. Living in this fast paced, ever changing world, being able to carefully analyse and evaluate investment opportunities is an upper

hand for investors.

According to Charles P. Jones [1], an investment can be defined as the

commitment of the funds to one or more assets that will be held over some future time period. In the book that he had written too he mentioned that investment is concerned with the management of an investor's wealth, which are the sum of current income and the present value of all future income.

Observation is comprehension. This principle is central to all visualisation. This project will be based closely on the paper 'The Argument-as Metaphor in Decision making Visualisation' by John McGinn and Richard Picking.

In their paper, McGinn and Picking f2] describes 'argument-as' metaphors and

how they may be used as a vehicle to visualise decision support information. They also argue that their approach is useful for users who may not have advanced computer skills, who have little time to dedicate to in-depth analysis of the information. By using this metaphorical approach, they believe that it is simple to understand, easy to manipulate, and transparent in its display of underlying reasoning.

1.2 Problem Statement

In financial world, it is important that every data is capture and translated into decision making steps. Visualisation can help with the better understanding of the financial data. With the increase of economic globalisation and evolution of information technology, financial data are being generated and accumulated at a preference pace. As a result, there has been a critical need for automated approaches to effective and efficient utilisation of massive amount of financial data to support companies and individuals in strategic planning and investment decision-making.

To date, most systems for the visualisation of stock market data have concentrated on effective methods for showing time series data, particularly trying to capture share price fluctuation and market share. Traditionally this has been achieved through simple charts and histograms. Charting is a standard technique used in financial decision making.

Through charts and histograms, an analyst may missed a valuable data that is crucial in the decision-making process which would lead to lost in any of the investment

and parties who involves in the investment. This could lead to stress in making decision.

Hence, would lead to wrong decision.

Dealing with a large multi-dimensional dataset is not an easy task; to differentiate valuable data from the invaluable data cluster. This may takes ages to analyse and these analyst are busy professionals, non-expert computer users, who need to make decision every day and be confident with the decision they have made with little room for mistakes. Nowadays, people rely on computers and software to assist them in reaching any decision.

13 Objectives and Scope of Study

1.3.1 Objectives

♦ To develop a data visualisation tool that offers an intuitive way to shorten decision-making cycles.

♦ Making data and information collected into a system that can be manipulated.

1.3.2 Scope of Study

In this paper, as discussed with my supervisor, the focus will be on one paper which is 'The Argument-as Metaphor in Decision-making Visualisation' and the scope of my studies will focus on individual investment, from there onward all the research and analysing the information will be done.

To help the investors in making crucial decision, this application is hoped that it could assist investors in making decisionsand evaluate the multiple choices of decisions they can have and assess the effects of their decisions.

By using the application being developed, it is also hoped that it could give investors the overview affects of numerous decisions they make. This application is targeted to assist investors as an alternative in decision-making, in other word this application is design to lessen the hassle and the effort to search

and research info on investment.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Information visualisation is the key in assisting decision-maker in making their decision. By using visualisation, it is targeted that it could help in numerous ways in decision making such as giving the visualised version ofthe problem and making it easier

to decide. This allows decision-maker to separate the needed information from the

unwanted information.

2.1 Research Paper 'Argument-as Metaphor in Decision-making Visualisation'

I was advised to focus on one paper to work on. I took time to understand the

paper, The Argument-as Metaphor in Decision-making Visualisation, written by McGinn and Picking thoroughly. Basically the paper works on assumption data. With the linguistic metaphor, one may find that a simple sentence may be interpreted into many different meanings. At some point it may be harmless; at times it means the other way

around. The paper expresses that themetaphor is very powerful tools which canfacilitate

dialogue and convey complexidea.

There are to ways in application ofthe linguistic metaphor. Firstly, argument-as-

war metaphor, which is as argumentation; meaning that, there must be a hard prove to

what we are saying. The other is, argument-as-balance metaphor, where rational

argument is understood as a twin-pan balance ofweights, where the weight on either side

represents the strength ofthe arguments on either side of a question, for example: the

debater built up a weighty argument; thejury weighed the merits of bothsides; more facts might tip the scale [31.

In the paper, they introduced a sample of visualisation method called DAVE

(Decision and Argumentation Visualisation Explorer). Figure I is showing the visual

representation of the factors affecting a risk or a decision. Individual factors can be

dragged along the balance bar to indicate their relative importance and the size of a weight can be adjusted with a slider to indicate the magnitude of that particular factor.

The angle of rotation of the bar from the horizontal then suggests the strength of argument in one direction or the other. In this form, the model is a useful argumentation

tool121.

-vc importance

Ameliorating factor

+yg Emportaftce

\ /

Cootribrttag factus

Figure 1

-ve indicator Neutral

+ve indicator

Using the size ofthe weights to represent the magnitude offactors may require different

scales.

The limitation of this approach is that it will only work with if the underlying algorithm supports the identification of the contribution of each factor. Another limit is the ability to simultaneously displaying the numbers of factors.

Again, to show the importance of visualising, a research report done by William

Wright \ says that the 3 - dimensional computer graphics can be extremely expressive.

With the correct approach to the visual design of the layout, massive amounts of information can be quickly and easily comprehended by the human observer.

Visualisation works because the visual cortex dominates perception, and because key

aspects of the perception process occur rapidly without conscious thought.

This human visualisation power can be harnessed to allow the presentation of the

massive amounts of data and to highlight patterns hidden in that data. Used effectively,

visualisation can accelerate perception of data. By designing visualisation with human

strengths and weaknesses in mind, it is possible to exploit people's natural ability to recognise structure and patterns, and circumvent human limitations in memory and

attention.

Powerful visualisation is designed to enlist both pre-attentive and attentive processes. A pre - attentively encoded attribute may be used to identify a region in the visualisation which demand further attentive scrutiny. It was also mentioned that the ease of use and the user interface design are crucial to application success. Information

animation or visualization is a new way of working with the information and requires

innovative user interface techniques.

Information animation has an important role within organisation. With significant investments made in computing infrastructure over the last decade, organisations have vast amounts of business data available to support decision making. So much data, in

fact, that some current conditions might be described as information overload. Used

effectively, information animation orvisualisations can accelerate the perception, provide

insight and control, and allow this flood ofvaluable data to be harnessed for competitive

advantage in business decision making.

In another paper, it is stressed that by visualisation, one can make more effective

and correct decision. In Communication Association for Information Systems, 2006,

David P. Tegarden [5] says that in a cognitive fit theory shows that decision making is improved when the information representation matches the problem-solving task.

Representing data suitably in a visual manner, improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision-maker, and thus, allows them to separate the important info from the

chunks of info.

The tutorial mentioned that the visualisation allows:

♦ Exploiting the human visual system to extractinformation from data

♦ Provides an overview of complex datasets

♦

Identifies structure, patterns, trends, anomalies, and relationship indata, and

♦ Assists in identifying the areas of "interest"

Business decision-maker suffers from information overload while at the same

time underutilising large amount ofrelevant information. Among the reasons for this is, key information is difficult to find or recognize and time-sensitive responsiveness is

required.

2.2 Investor's Investment

As the paper I based on in developing this application, it mentioned that how a word or a sentence can be interpreted in many ways by different reader. In individual investment, investor has the tendencies in interpreting the news in stock market news or

business news in their own understanding. Which could lead do wrong decision-making

and ending with losses in investment Either positive or negative information or news can

exacerbate an irrational response from investor, asthenews swept along, a nerd mentality

prevails and good judgement takes a back seat.

Currently, a number of informal data suggests that large numbers of individual investor lose money in the market even when investing in those mutual funds that

outperform. As for this situation, we noticed that individual investors tends to buys on

rumours and hot tips, believe too many gurus, are not disciplined enough, lack of consistent approach to the market, and almost frequently misjudge management of their

companies or mutual funds.

Increasing number of baby boomers turning to the stock market to secure then-

long-term financial survival, it became increasingly clear that the investor's personal

psychology affects their decision-making process. The investor's personal psychology

proves thatthe argument-as metaphor plays a crucial part in decision-making cycles. The

personal psychology will be the factors in the decision-making application.

23 Factors Affects Investment Decision Making

In investing, human behavioural plays an important role in decision-making.

There are a few factors that can be considered as the contributing and improving factors.

Everyone have their own goals and different level of risk tolerance in investment. Both improvingand contributingfactorscan be categorised into a series of fectors according to

end users research on reasons that concern most of the investors the most. These factors

may affect the decision-snaking in various aspects in investment.

23.1 Gender

Statistics show that women live, on average, six years longer than men, earn two-thirds the salary of men, and pay between 50 - 70% more for goods and services like haircuts and dry cleaning.

According to an article in BNET Business Network titled 'Does Gender affect investment decision?' i6\ there are still lots of brokers out there who continue to see women in this role. One study showed that brokers were more likely to insist that women go home and discuss their financial choices with a spouse before making any final decisions.

Brokers also spent significantly more time discussing investment choices with men, while focusing only on low-risk choices with women. This perception builds the uncertainties in female investors, doubting their own abilities in decision-making regarding investment

In areas such as finance, men are more overconfident than women. Thus, men will trade more excessively than women. Women are more likely to feel cautious and overwhelmed. An increasing number of financial studies conclude

10

that women invest their asset portfolios more conservatively than their male

counterparts[7]. Asurvey done by Seattle PI, 'Sharebuilder and Investing Women

2007% the results are shown in the figure below.

Out of a survey of 2,033 households

11

3% 3%

Confident Optimistic Intimidated Cautious Overwhelmed Panicked

Figure 2

The survey done, had a 2 percentage-point margin of error. Women are

more likely to beintimidated byfinancial language, the survey showed. To many

women, terms such as "positions'* and "exchange traded funds" sound likejargon.

Knowledge is also an important factor when it comes to investing and trading online. Simply perceiving oneself as knowledgeable is a critical step toward

becoming a successful investor.

Currently men are more knowledgeable then women with respect to

investing. At the same time, it was found that men tend not to want too much

detail while women want more information. Women tend to really want to

understand what's being suggested and why. What's more, they tend to be less

impulsive and lessinclined to act ona hot tip than men are.

'When it comes to invESting. how would you

Not knowledgeable M

m Somewhat knowledgeable • Vsr? knowledgeable

IEN

Figure 3

Men and women both have different level of priorities in life. These priority ranges from food to electronic gadgets. The survey also shows that the willingness for bothmen and women of cutting certain areas of their expenses in order to do investment. To do so, both gender must practise a certain level of self - restraint in expenses and reward them self later by getting high return in the investment portfolio.

12

you b€ least willing to tut i>ads each month?

Electronics Clote Entertswimettt

Figure 4

srungevenis

Pitting out

23.2 Age

To date, any decision varies for each age group. This is due to different group has its own needs at different time.

♦ 20's group

This group range from those who just graduated, job seeker, and those who just started their work and life. Their priority is to get steady job, going into investment is rather the last thing on their mind. Undergraduates do not have any saving. Those ho just started to work have difficulties in starting their live and trying to put things together.

13

♦ 30's group

This group range from those who just started a family life and they have a steadyjob. Normally this group have their children welfare and education to worry about. But they are willing to

invest in assets such as cars and house.

♦> 40's group

This is the range of age group that would really invest. This is due to their steady income and if any loss occurs, they are able to recover because of the steady income. They know how and where and when to invest due to their experience and have larger

network of friends and information.

♦> 50's group and above

This is the least age group that would invest. Most of this group are unemployed and live entirely on their retirement fund.

These funds are translated into their health needs instead of into investment in the markets.

2.3.3 Profession

Each profession differs in their level of knowledge in investment. The

higher the rank of the person in the society, the more likely they are willing to invest in the markets. Being at the higher level in the society gives them the upper hand by knowing where to invest in more secure markets and invest in a large

sum.

14

Investors at the lower income ends, they tend to invest in a smaller sum because their income level and the ability to get loan for investment is lower compared to the higher rank people in the society.

For those who works in the financial world, the tendencies to invest is much higher than those who works in the government sectors or those who are from the lower income. The financial people know how in the matter of investment assist their ability of decision making in when to invest and where.

2.3.4 Social Status/Lifestyle

Married andpartnered people are also the most confident —68 percentsay they will achieve theirinvestment goals versus 61 percentof singlepeopleand 60 percent of those who are separated, divorced or widowed.

Three in four people said that their financial situations were better in

marriage than in singledom. Women are better at knowing what they're marrying into —they were more likely to know their partner's financial situation before getting hitched.

15

2.4 Tools and Equipments Required

The tools that are used throughout mis project also must be identified. Basically,

the tools used are divided into three parts which software, hardware and documents. As

for this project, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 will be used to develop this application.

This is because faster development (less to do, the system handles more)

♦ Lotsof built-in functionality through a rich object model

♦ A variety ofwaysto interface and integrate with the outside world

♦> More reuse

♦> Easy to integrate different languages into one system

♦ Easier deployment

♦ Scalability

♦ Easyto build sophisticated development tools

♦> Interfaces well to existingsoftware

16

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Methodology

In the beginning of the project, mainly the method of gaining the information needed is by doing research and reading materials based on the project. As the project go on, the project will be developed based on the Spiral Model and Prototype Model.

By using these two models, it is an effective tool in assisting the requirements specification process. Taking advantage ofthe fact that development projects work best when they are both incremental and iterative, where the project was able to start small and benefit from enlightened trial and error along the way. That is the reason I chose to

developthis project using spiral model.

17

/ Test and _ Understand the / Evaluate ^ "~ ~~" Requirements

/ / / ' _ < \

\

f Start iU-t-i-

Rapid Prelutjjilnp /' / .' /

Build in Design the

\ Stages --, __^ System /

Figure 5

The spiral methodology reflects the relationship of tasks with rapid prototyping, increased parallelism, and concurrency in design and buildsactivities. Indirectly, leadsto prototyping model. In each cycle of process, a prototype is being design and being tested for any error. After a round in the cycle, the same process will be done only with the

enhanced version ofthe prototype.

The system requirements are define as much as possible in the initial stage to ensure that the system will be developed accordingly to the timeline. After all the system

requirements are collected, the preliminary design is created. From there onwards, the 1st

prototype is constructed from the preliminary design.

According to this model, each prototype will be labelled as version 0.x until the system is ready and labelled version 1.0. By doing this, each version will be created slowly in stages. In each version, the system will be developed in increment method. The higher the version, more add-ons will be added in the system.

18

3.2 System Workflow

(start)

1'

User select factors ^r Compare factor Generate visualisation

. , 1 r . . .

(End)

Figure 6

19

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This section will discuss the result from this project. The result can be achieve from the research that have been made earlier by the author. In this section also there is some discussion about the related issues for this project. Basically, the result will be the evaluation of the end product, which is the Decision-Making Visualisation Application Based on Argument-as Metaphor.

The research and finding must meetthe requirement to fulfil the objectives of the project. The expected end result of this project is to enable the end user of this system finds that the system help in many ways in decision-making. The application is expected to be used in the future in assisting investors in decision-making in a face paced of

financial world.

Research scientists historically have been attracted to develop visualisation software to aid decision-maker. The technology will enable universities and research institutions to share information on the plus side of developing visualisationsoftware and finding the most accurate way in creating the suitable visualisation for any situation

especially in the financial world.

20

However, financial information visualisation is a new research area that focuses

on the use of visualisation techniques to help the financial professionals and financial

illiterate in understanding and analyse the financial data to their own benefit and

enjoyment.

4.1 Result

The system developed was able to achieve it objectives which are :

♦

To develop a data visualisation tool that offers an intuitive way to shorten

decision-making cycles.

♦>

Making data and information collected into a system that can be manipulated.

21

Though the second objective is not fully achieved but still the system had met its minimum requirement Below shownare the screenshots of the applicationdeveloped:

Financial Desicion Making System Please select your Contribution Factor e

Contribution Factor

nd the Percentage

Percentage X

[40 :yr-\

j the Percentage

Percentage X

j20 .V:j

ig factor

JTime Factor ^v;]

Please select your 1mproving Factor an

Improving Factor

investment Liquidity .v j

\ Compare J Press Compare Button togettheleadi [ Reset j Press Reset Button toreset

. Visual Show the leading factor after comparing

10b 1 so

1

80

1 70

! 60 i 50 I 40 1

3D

j Contributing f-

10 1

knproving

1 « 1 Figure 7

22

Financial Desicion Making System Rease select your Contribution Factor £

Contribution Factor

nd the Percentage

Percentage %

|ID ivjj

i the Percentage

Percentage %

JS0 .v^j

[Tax Chargers .*f':\

Please select your Improving Factor ant

Improving Factor

!Diversified Investment .v"[

ig factor

|; Compare \ Press Compare Button togettheieadii j Reset J Press Reset Button toreset

. Visual Show the leadingfactoraftercomparing

100 1 90

1 80

1

70

1 60 1

1" Improving

40 I

3D I

j Contributing J f3

10 1 n

| Exit |

Figure 8

4.2 Discussion

During the period of developing the system, a number of problems were encountered. Originally, the system would have been developed using Java. After much of self learning and trying in developing the system, in the end it did not turn out well.

Having problems in mastering the language with weak basic in the language create problem in understanding the concept of the system.

Later, the developments of the system were switch to using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. The difficulties I came across were the programming of the system's algorithm to fit the system's requirement although the interface of the system looks simple. Aftermuch discussion, I realised that for the weighing of the factors, I should not

23

use percentage, instead using score system that would be much easier to calculate.

Research on ways to calculate the weighing method that can be use to ensure that the weighing of each factors is accurate must be done continuously.

43 Code Sample

Public Class Forml

Private Sub Forml_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

'Label3.Text = "Please select your contribution factor and the percentage"

'Label2.Text = "Percentage %"

1lblContributePerce.Text = "Contribution Factor"

lblEnterContribute.Text = "Please select your Contribution Factor and the Percentage"

lblContribute.Text = "Contribution Factor"

IblContributePercentage.Text = "Percentage %"

lblErxterImprove.Text ~ "Please select your Improving Factor and the Percentage"

IblImprove.Text = "Improving Fact or"

IbllmprovePercentage.Text = "Percentage %"

factor"

lblBtnCompare.Text = "Press Compare Button to get the leading

lblBtnReset.Text = "Press Reset Button to reset"

lblFinancial.Text = "Financial Desicion Making System"

btnlmpl.Visible = True btnlmp2.Visible = False btnlmp3.Visible = False btnlmp4.Visible = False btnlmp5.Visible = False btnlmp6.Visible = False btnlmp7.Visible = False btnlmp8.Visible = False btnlmp9.Visible - False btnlmplO.Visible = False btnlmpll.Visible = False

btnCtnl.Visible = True btnCtn2.Visible = False btnCtn3.Visible = False btnCtn4.Visible = False btnCtn5.Visible = False btnCtn6.Visible = False btnCtn7.Visible = False btnCtn8.Visible = False

24

btnCtn9.Visible = False btnCtnlO.Visible = False btnCtnll.Visible = False

End Sub

Private Sub btnCompare_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e

As System.EventArgs) Handles btnCompare.Click Dim IngContribute As Long

Dim lnglmproving As Long Dim IngCompare As Long Dim strCompare As String

If comboContribute.Text = " " Or combolmprove.Text =

" " Then

MsgBox("Please enter your contribution and improving factor")

End If

IngContribute = CLng(Trim(comboContributePercentage.Text)) lnglmproving = CLng(TrimfcomboImprovePercentage.Text)) IngCompare = IngContribute - lnglmproving

strCompare = CStr(IngCompare)

If strCompare = "10" Then btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn2.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "20" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn3.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "30" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn4.Visible = True

Elself strCompare = "40" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn5.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "50" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn6.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "60" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn7.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "70" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn8.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "80" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtn9.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "90" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtnlO.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "100" Then

btnCtnl.Visible = False btnCtnll.Visible = True

25

Elself strCompare - "-10" Then btnlmpl.Visible = False btnlmp2.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-20" Then

btnlmpl.Visible = False btnlmp3.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-30" Then

btnlmpl.Visible = False btnlmp4. Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-40" Then

btnlmpl.Visible = False btnlmp5.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-50" Then

btnlmpl. Visible = False btnlmp6.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-60" Then

btnlmpl. Visible = False btnlmp7. Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-70" Then

btnlmpl.Visible *= False btnlmp8.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-80" Then

btnlmpl.Visible =* False btnlmp9.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-90" Then

btnlmpl.Visible = False btnlmplO.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "-100" Then

btnlmpl. Visible = False btnlmpl1.Visible = True Elself strCompare = "0" Then

btnlmpl.Visible = True

btnCtnl.Visible = True

'MsgBox("You did not select the contributing and improving

percentage")

End If

End Sub

Private Sub btnReset_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnReset-Click

comboContribute.Text = " "

comboContributePercentage.Text = "0"

combo Improve. Text = " "

comboImprovePercentage.Text = "0"

btnlmpl.Visible = True btnlmp2.Visible = False btnlmp3.Visible = False btnlmp4.Visible = False btnlmp5.Visible = False btnlmp6.Visible = False btnlmp7.Visible = False btnlmpS.Visible = False btnlmp9.Visible = False btnlmplO.Visible = False btnlmpl1.Visible = False

26

btnCtnl.Visible = True btnCtn2.Visible = False btnCtn3.Visible « False btnCtn4.Visible = False btnCtn5.Visible = False btnCtn6.Visible = False btnCtn7.Visible = False btnCtn8.Visible = False btnCtn9.Visible » False btnCtnlO.Visible = False btnCtnll.Visible = False

End Sub

Private Sub btnExit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnExit.Click

End End Sub

Private Sub comboContribute_SelectedIndexChanged (ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles

comboContribute.SelectedlndexChanged

End Sub End Class

27

CHAPTERS

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion

Information visualisation technology provides the information systems developer with a new set of tools in which to support the business decision-maker. Visualisation

technologies have been used in many areas of business, e.g. finance, marketing, and training, and they have been used to support many different types of task in decision

making.

With the existence of visualisation technology, this leads to numbers of new

approaches in problem solving. It is the decision-maker's decision to decide whether to use or not any of the visualisation technologies in assisting them in making decision for

any risky or crucial information.

However, in the mean time, mere are many opportunities in doing research in visualisation technologies to address a few questions that may arise, such as, the

complexity of the financial data to be extracted and visualised accordingly. Any research

done, in the end the results ofthe researchwill benefit all the decision-makers in any area

of the financial world.

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5.2 Recommendation

There are a few recommendations for the system to be developed better:

♦ Factors should be able to be calculated in collective manner and shown in the visualisation

♦> Better algorithmto be used to ensure the accuracyofthe calculations

involves

♦ A more accurate weighing method to be used to weigh the factors

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REFERENCE

[1] Charles P. Jones, "Investments - Analysis and Management", 7th Edition, John

Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2000

[2] John McGinn and RichardPicking, "The Argument-asMetaphorin

Decision-making Visualisation", Technology and ComputerScience,North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Wrexham, WALES, 2003

[3] Johnson, M. The Body in the Mind, University of Chicago Press, (1987)

[4] William Wright, 1995, "Research Paper - Information Animations in the Capital Markets", Visible Decisions Inc., Toronto, Canada, 1995

[5] David P. Tegarden, "Tutorial- Business InformationVisualization", Volume 1,

Article 4, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Pamplin College

of Business, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, January, 1999

[6] BNET Business Network

http://fmdarticles.eom/p/articles/mi qa3642/is 200001/ai n8886479 Does Gender affect investment decision?

[71 See Hinz, McCarthy, and Turner (1996), Bajtelsmit and VanDerHei (1996), Bajtelsmit, Bernasek, and Jianakoplos (1996), and Jianakoplos and Bernasek (1996)

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OTHER REFERENCE

1- http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/money/309856 womeninvest02.html 2. http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/282813

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